FCA
The FCA found traders colluded to fix rates between 2008 and October 2013. Reuters

A City trader has become the first person to be arrested for rigging the £3.5tn-a-day foreign exchange market.

He is currently being detained following a raid on his home in Essex in the early hours of this morning, the Serious Fraud Office has confirmed.

"We can confirm one man was arrested in Billericay on 19 December," an SFO spokesman said. "Officers from the City of London Police assisted with the operation."

His arrest comes after five of the world's biggest banks – Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Citibank, JP Morgan and UBS were fined £2bn in the scandal.

Approximately 30 bankers have been sacked or suspended but until now, no arrests were made. The Financial Conduct Authority found traders allegedly fixed rates between 2008 and October 2013.

Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said: "Firms must make sure their traders do not game the system to boost profits or leave the ethics of their conduct to compliance to worry about.

"At the end of the day, companies might have lax controls that allow bad things to happen but it's people that do bad things."

Chancellor George Osborne previously said the UK's share of the money from the fines (£1.1bn) would be ploughed into the NHS.

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